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Truck Mania!

California’s Largest Truck Event

California is a big state. From top to bottom it’s nearly 1,000 miles long, and it boasts the World’s 5th largest economy. So, when the folks at Sacramento Raceway in Northern California touted their extravaganza as the “…States’ largest truck event,” we were a little skeptical. But guess what, they were right! On a sunny Saturday, more than 5,000 racers and spectators came through the gates, to witness what would be one heck of a show, especially for a one-day event.

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NorCal diesel regular Larry Strawn brought out his famous Model A known as the “Fodge” which has tickled the 9s on many occasions. Behind it is his new “Fodge 3” build, based on a Ram dually.

The morning of Truckmania was kicked off by a vendors’ row, food trucks, and drag racing, where everything from 17-second stockers to 9-second drag trucks made the call. The only rule was that you needed a truck, so there were plenty of fun gas versus diesel matchups throughout the day, as a number of LS-powered street stormers made the trip. We were there for the diesels of course, and we were surprised at the number of 10 and 11-second street trucks that made the call. Even some sled pulling rigs put on slicks and got into the action! There was also rows and rows of chrome in the show n’ shine area, where you could find everything from clean square-body stockers, to one-off show builds.

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The truck show featured trucks of all shapes and sizes, as well as a lot of patriotism!

During any downtime (which was few and far between) spectators could walk over to the donut pit, a series of concrete barriers lined up to create a big box–where it was anything goes. Want to do a standing burnout? No problem. Sling your truck around in wild donuts? You could do that too. There was no scoring, just big gasps from the crowd any time a truck nearly swung into the wall. The tire spinning continued on in the afternoon, as after the drag races there was a giant burnout contest.

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This OBS Ford was ridiculously clean, and upon closer look was home to a host of modifications, including a coil-over front suspension.

Towards the evening, there was a switch from the cement to the dirt arena, as it was time for Tough Trucks, a competition that pitted rigs against an off-road obstacle course. Some competitors were in it for time, while others joined the fun with $500 trucks that they absolutely destroyed. We didn’t see many diesels, but we’ll be on the lookout for a cheap ride for next year! The final event of the night was the sled pulls, where classes from Stock, to Street, to Modified were all represented. The competition was fierce, with Duramax-powered GMs and Cummins-powered Dodges battling it out for the top spots.

With competitors and spectators coming from all over the Northwest including Nevada, Arizona, and even Idaho, it was clear Truckmania lived up to the hype. Now, it we can just find a $500 diesel for Tough Truck next year…

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Old met new in what was probably the hit of the show, this wild Cummins-powered old-school Dodge built by Wilsonz Customz out of Grass Valley, California.
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Normally we’d see the Vierra Bros. Chevrolet pulling, but this year he swapped on a single S484 and nitrous and ran an incredible 10.2-second quarter mile!
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The Bracket class was full of all sorts of diesels, like this super-clean 1st Gen which manually shifted its way downtrack.
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Another truck that surprised us was this regular cab Chevy, which rocketed its way to a 10.60 at 130 mph!
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Sometimes clean just works, like in the case of this white-on-white GMC Denali.
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Sometimes “show” also included a fair amount of horsepower, as was the case with this Duramax powerplant, which boasted a set of compound turbos and dual fuelers from Wherli Custom Fabrication.
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We’re starting to see thumpin’ stereo systems make a comeback, as dueling sounds was definitely a part of Truckmania.
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Sacramento’s Black Smoke Mafia club brought a bunch of its clothing line to the show, as well as a neat little shortbed street truck.
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The fastest diesel on the premises belonged to Kenny Bruner, who is prepping the truck for UCC. He ran a 9.6 at 138 mph, then turned on the bottle and went 9.38 at 145!
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The Bracket class was full of all sorts of diesels, like this super-clean 1st Gen which manually shifted its way downtrack.
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It’s been a good number of years since we’ve seen the Silvera brothers’ 10-second Dodge, and we were glad to see it at Truckmania again. Gremlins kept the truck from making a full pass.
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The gas versus diesel battles were fun to watch, and were a highlight of the action all day long.
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Sometimes the stock driveshaft just won’t cut it, especially if you’re a GM guy. Yes that is the front half of the driveshaft making an early exit behind the rear of the truck.
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Clifford the big red Dodge was a heavy hitter in the Stock class, and pulled an impressive 312 feet.
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West Coast Diesels’ Tucker White tried to go cross-track to get some extra distance out of his 6.0L-powered Ford, and although he finished well, it was well short of the Full Pull mark.
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There’s always one truck that goes out the door in the back, which in Sacramento means heading around the circle track since there is no sand pile! The crowd went nuts for the Getting Lit Dodge, which had a massive 351-foot effort.

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